back to indexCollege Seminar 2018
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So if you could bow your heads with me in prayer, we'll start the seminar. 00:00:13.220 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning and thank you God that there are many who 00:00:16.980 |
are here to ask this very weighty question, what is genuine conversion? 00:00:23.920 |
And so would you teach us, as lengthy and as quantifiable this material is, oh Father, 00:00:34.800 |
instruct our hearts to not just test our own salvation, but also to think about how we 00:00:41.880 |
can better understand our interactions with the lost. 00:00:50.200 |
Would you give me clarity and would you keep us awake and alert because we know God that 00:00:54.760 |
the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 00:01:04.720 |
Okay, so we're going to be talking about what genuine conversion is today. 00:01:11.080 |
And rather than talk about conversion, I'm going to most likely be using the word salvation 00:01:21.240 |
And like I was praying, one of the big things is I want our college ministry and our church 00:01:27.800 |
to become very aware of our surroundings and spiritual state. 00:01:34.120 |
So you know how like when you're living your life, you kind of break up your day into things 00:01:38.600 |
you're doing, you're in class now or you're at home now or you're at church now and all 00:01:44.000 |
But I do want us to be very sensitive to the fact that there are people existing in those 00:01:51.760 |
So when we look at it in categories, in terms of our own lives, we kind of become very self-centered 00:02:02.240 |
But rather than that, I hope that our eyes are open to see people where they are. 00:02:07.020 |
And everyone that you see, yes, people outside, but even here in this room, you are destined 00:02:19.200 |
And that should put an eternal burden on your soul because we're dealing with eternal beings. 00:02:29.360 |
That's why this was maybe one of the harder studies I've had to do because you know, I 00:02:35.040 |
And then as I was going into it, I was like, "Oh, this is kind of a big topic." 00:02:40.080 |
So I don't...man, this was really tough for me. 00:02:44.520 |
So I stayed up pretty late last night doing this. 00:02:47.280 |
And so if some things come out a little bit incoherent, please use the question and answer 00:02:53.560 |
Steven has put up on the Facebook page, like a Google form kind of thing. 00:03:00.920 |
And then at the very end, after I give you guys a little bit of a break, we'll be going 00:03:08.040 |
So I am going to be trying to run as fast as I can here. 00:03:11.080 |
But at any point, if you have a question that you feel like, "Oh, this would be better addressed 00:03:14.880 |
like right now," please raise your hand and just ask it. 00:03:19.360 |
So just do this and you can ask the question right away too. 00:03:21.520 |
And I don't mind stopping the teaching for that. 00:03:29.320 |
So the schedule is going to be, we're going to be going through the teaching. 00:03:33.600 |
And then afterwards, we're going to be doing a Q&A. 00:03:36.400 |
And then at the very end, if you have further questions, we're going to have the staff kind 00:03:41.200 |
of sitting around up front while people are going out and hanging out or going upstairs 00:03:47.460 |
If you have more questions about your own faith or even about like, you know, I have 00:03:52.000 |
this roommate, I have this friend who's not a believer, and how can I track through this 00:04:00.040 |
And so the staff is going to be here to kind of help you out with that. 00:04:03.760 |
So more than anything, please use this morning to gauge where you personally stand. 00:04:11.920 |
So let's get right there into the introduction. 00:04:15.000 |
The question is, how does a person know that he is really saved? 00:04:23.160 |
You don't have to turn there because I'm going to try to have this. 00:04:44.160 |
Matthew 7, verse 21 says here, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the 00:04:50.360 |
kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 00:04:54.360 |
On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast 00:04:58.120 |
out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?' 00:05:00.800 |
And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you. 00:05:04.200 |
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" 00:05:06.560 |
Now this is probably, you've read it before and seen it to be one of the scariest passages 00:05:13.080 |
It's terrifying because there's a sense of these people who are proclaiming believers 00:05:22.800 |
And they do lots of things that a believer would do. 00:05:27.800 |
And yet they get to the gate, they get to the judgment seat, and they say, "Hey, it's 00:05:40.760 |
And it's scary because this isn't a hypothetical. 00:05:44.360 |
This is not something that we're reading like, "Oh, this is a scriptural metaphor." 00:05:50.440 |
This is something that will happen and has already happened. 00:05:55.600 |
The people maybe even we have known in our lives. 00:06:00.400 |
This is maybe the track some of us in this room might be on right now. 00:06:09.500 |
That address up here when it says, this guy who gets up there and says, "Lord, Lord." 00:06:16.520 |
If you ask that question, why is he saying it twice? 00:06:18.640 |
Because that's a form of intimacy and relationship in the Hebrew culture. 00:06:48.680 |
So when the personal form of address is repeated, it suggests an intimate personal relationship 00:07:02.040 |
In Genesis chapter 22, verse 11 through 12, you don't have to write these down. 00:07:05.280 |
Genesis 46 to Exodus 3, 4, 1 Samuel 3, 10, Luke 10, 41, Luke 22, 31, Acts 9, 4, Matthew 00:07:13.400 |
Every time in a Hebrew sense when the name is repeated. 00:07:15.920 |
For example, when God calls out to Samuel, if you know that Bible story, what does he 00:07:30.480 |
And so in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, when these people are coming to God and saying, "Lord, 00:07:35.600 |
Lord," it's saying that they assume they had an intimate relationship with Christ. 00:07:41.360 |
And then Christ, with those heartbreaking words says, "We didn't. 00:07:50.960 |
I brought this up at the retreat, but since the PowerPoint didn't go up, Demas in Colossians 00:07:55.920 |
chapter 4, verse 14, and Philemon 23 through 24, says, "Luke, the beloved physician, greets 00:08:05.560 |
Meaning, for the Apostle Paul, Luke and Demas were very intimate, close friends and workers 00:08:13.680 |
In Philemon 23 to 24, it passed for another great hero of the faith, "My fellow prisoner 00:08:18.520 |
in Christ, Jesus sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, 00:08:30.240 |
And then again, another heartbreaking passage in 2 Timothy 4, 10. 00:08:33.640 |
If you don't know, 2 Timothy is the last letter before Paul's death. 00:08:37.800 |
At the end of his life, this guy has run with him, has walked with him, has cried with him, 00:08:45.120 |
They've seen the fruit of the harvest reaped together. 00:08:50.720 |
And he says, "Come to me quickly," because you can read the tear-stained words of Paul 00:09:00.320 |
He says, "Come to me quickly, I need you, for Demas, in love with this present world, 00:09:08.280 |
Even a guy named Demas, a guy like Demas, who was so close to God and who did so much 00:09:23.480 |
There's none of us in this room that's kind of above this. 00:09:26.160 |
We really have to think through this together. 00:09:29.800 |
We don't have to turn very much further than a passage like John 13, verse 21 to 26, to 00:09:35.240 |
see how someone so close to Christ can be so far than a guy like Judas. 00:09:50.880 |
So question for you before we begin, as we're still in the introduction here, if you were 00:10:02.760 |
This is not a question to end all questions because of this. 00:10:06.000 |
There are a lot of people who will say, "I'm going to heaven," and they believe it with 00:10:12.120 |
But the secondary question you need to ask them is, "Why do you believe that? 00:10:18.800 |
Why do you think you're going to be rescued from hell?" 00:10:23.960 |
If God asks you, "Hey, so yeah, you're here, and you're saying you deserve to be here, 00:10:34.760 |
So let's go into our first Roman numeral point here. 00:10:41.600 |
Now we're going to run through these quickly, these five points. 00:10:45.040 |
First, salvation is not saving from your circumstances or trials. 00:10:53.840 |
It's not saving from your circumstances or trials. 00:10:59.160 |
It might be tempting in a lot of your testimonies, if you've ever written out your testimony, 00:11:09.080 |
A lot of times it's because you guys break up with someone, and you're crying into your 00:11:20.800 |
Although he can use those circumstances to bring you to himself, he is not here to save 00:11:28.720 |
Secondly, he's not here to save us from depression. 00:11:32.480 |
Thirdly, he's not simply here to save us and to hand us a get-out-of-hell-free card. 00:11:49.840 |
Fourthly, he doesn't do it just to save us to a better life. 00:11:59.800 |
Obviously, you've got to be really careful on the pulpit of who you out, but Joel Osteen 00:12:10.080 |
This health and wealth gospel of thinking that Christ saves you, and so now you can 00:12:14.320 |
live in all the prosperity that this world can offer you. 00:12:21.840 |
Fifthly, all of these might happen as byproducts of salvation, but they are not the point. 00:12:30.120 |
All of these things can happen and will happen, but they are not the point of salvation. 00:12:38.040 |
As you guys can tell, this is kind of a longer worksheet than you're used to, so we've 00:12:44.400 |
Simply put, it's to place your faith in the message of the gospel. 00:12:50.140 |
That is not only salvation, but how you apprehend salvation. 00:12:54.820 |
That's how you take salvation and make it your own. 00:12:58.860 |
You place your faith in the message of the gospel. 00:13:02.720 |
Then you have to know what the gospel is, so let's run through the gospel. 00:13:26.540 |
Everything that you're doing in your life is about God. 00:13:29.540 |
Everything that you see is there to glorify God. 00:13:39.860 |
In Isaiah 6, verse 3, Psalm 96, verse 9, you see some things here. 00:13:52.980 |
Isaiah 6, verse 3, "On one call to another and said," remember this is the seraphim, 00:14:03.340 |
He is holy, and it says that the whole earth is full of his glory, meaning everything is 00:14:12.300 |
All right, and then Psalm 96, verse 9, "Worship the Lord and the splendor of holiness. 00:14:20.060 |
This is an understanding of a high view of God. 00:14:23.340 |
God is not here to just become an accessory to our lives. 00:14:30.060 |
He is the meaning and reason and the sustaining work behind everything that we see. 00:14:35.700 |
And so in 1 Peter 1, verse 15, it says, "But as he who called you is holy, then you also 00:14:41.780 |
be holy in all your conducts, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" 00:14:49.380 |
Sometimes we want to become holy just because we feel like it makes us feel better or makes 00:14:53.540 |
us feel like we're growing as a Christian, or it makes us feel like we can serve better 00:14:58.740 |
or that we can evangelize better or things like that. 00:15:00.980 |
Those are all man-centered reasons of holiness. 00:15:03.500 |
And we know that the standard of why we want to be holy is because God is holy. 00:15:17.020 |
You know, we get into the gates of heaven and he asks us, "Why should I let you in?" 00:15:25.900 |
You can't say, "Well, I've lived a pretty good life." 00:15:28.860 |
You can't say, "I was better than my roommate." 00:15:32.580 |
You can't say, "I was better than that criminal." 00:15:36.820 |
God sets the standard and his very holy and perfect character is the thing that will become 00:15:45.580 |
the rubric as to how we can enter into the kingdom of heaven. 00:15:50.660 |
Sin and God cannot coexist, and by that, sinners and God cannot coexist. 00:15:57.620 |
Sometimes we say things like God hates the sin, loves the sinner. 00:16:03.940 |
True, because yes, he loves people, but he cannot love sinners in their sin. 00:16:13.580 |
He will love us to save us and to redeem us, but there will be a day where sinners will 00:16:19.100 |
have to face the wrath of God and they will be devoid of God's love for them. 00:16:26.860 |
There is no arguing, understanding that God is the standard behind everything. 00:16:33.740 |
This question that society comes up with and as humanity we bring up, we say, "If God is 00:16:45.380 |
If we understand this point, we see that if God is so good and he is so holy like this, 00:16:55.260 |
The simple, enormous truth that God is holy and nothing impure can reside in his presence. 00:17:02.140 |
And that brings us to the second part of the gospel, which is humans. 00:17:15.140 |
Humans not only do sinful things, but are sinners to the core from birth. 00:17:19.820 |
Humans exist in total depravity, meaning that there is nothing that we can do in our sin 00:17:27.220 |
There is nothing good in ourselves to even choose God. 00:17:31.740 |
We are not going to be talking about Calvinism versus Arminianism or anything like that today, 00:17:35.540 |
but have you ever thought about the Arminian point of view that says that I can choose 00:17:40.580 |
What is it inside of a person that says that that person would be able to choose God, whereas 00:17:47.260 |
You're saying that there is something inside of that person that is good to be able to 00:18:01.240 |
It's not only that we do sinful things, but that we're sinners to the core. 00:18:04.860 |
Romans 3 9-12 says, "There is none righteous, not even one." 00:18:09.820 |
There is no one who understands, none who seeks after God. 00:18:15.940 |
Who wants a God over our lives when we desire that position ourselves? 00:18:21.740 |
And Romans 3 23, hopefully you've all memorized this one, "For all have sinned and fall short 00:18:28.140 |
Right after that is a great gospel message and have been justified, but let's stick with 00:18:45.900 |
In Hebrews 2 2, we begin to see as sinners before a holy God that judgment is coming 00:19:02.380 |
In Hebrews 2 2 it says, "For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and 00:19:08.900 |
every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution." 00:19:18.020 |
Every transgression, bar none, ever committed by every heart, by ever in existence of humanity, 00:19:27.700 |
every transgression or disobedience receives a just retribution. 00:19:37.220 |
Hebrews 10 30, "For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine. 00:20:10.420 |
Now we are not fire and brimstone like the sons of thunder like James and John saying, 00:20:19.700 |
We're not going to go out and picket with like you're going to hell signs. 00:20:23.300 |
And yet it's telling if Jesus preached more about hell than heaven. 00:20:34.580 |
Just by sheer amount of quantity of Bible text that is reserved for talking about hell 00:20:40.860 |
rather than heaven, how are we skewed in our thinking? 00:20:52.180 |
And so it's clear to us and to every person in mankind, if you have not placed your faith 00:21:06.020 |
And I tried to make it as blunt as possible there. 00:21:08.700 |
If you have not placed your faith in Christ, hell. 00:21:27.980 |
If this is truth, and if you believe this, then you should be thinking about hellbound 00:21:40.500 |
And so salvation, we talked about before what salvation is not. 00:21:45.380 |
Salvation isn't rescuing us from a bad life or being poor or a horrible breakup or anything 00:21:52.380 |
Salvation is rescuing from God's furious wrath against sin and evil in light of his ultimate 00:22:05.520 |
Sinfulness is not just human error or human trials, but it's deep, pervading, cancerous, 00:22:16.020 |
We are dead in sin, we are helpless to it, we are hostile towards God in it. 00:22:44.060 |
By this point, your heart is like weighing down and getting heavier and heavier and heavier 00:22:52.140 |
Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 says, "At the right time, God sent forth his son Jesus." 00:23:01.500 |
In Romans 5a, it says, "While we were still sinners, while we were in the depths of that, 00:23:06.220 |
while we were mired under the weight of the standard of the holiness and wrath and ferocity 00:23:24.580 |
And more than that, how do you love someone unlovable to the point where you will sacrifice 00:23:33.660 |
John 3:16, "That whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." 00:23:38.860 |
And so by his perfect life and his death for our sins and his resurrection to prove his 00:23:47.380 |
Salvation comes through Jesus' perfect life, that's the next point there. 00:23:49.940 |
His death for our sins and his resurrection to prove his victory over our sin. 00:24:00.180 |
We see this glorious gospel scene in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, it says, "Come now, let 00:24:04.220 |
us reason together," says the Lord, "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be 00:24:09.460 |
Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." 00:24:11.980 |
In Isaiah 43-25, "I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will 00:24:19.060 |
not," listen to this and let it just marinate in this truth, "I will not remember your sins." 00:24:38.180 |
This is what God offers the world through his Son. 00:24:41.180 |
So there it is, God, humans, Jesus, and now we get to the fourth part. 00:24:50.660 |
Now here's the thing, let it read there, "Many people are in hell who have heard and mentally 00:25:01.380 |
Many people are in hell who heard and mentally assent to the God/Man/Jesus message. 00:25:14.340 |
Letter B, "Many people stand at the line drawn on the sand and cannot decide whether or not 00:25:23.780 |
Ultimately, this is the same as not crossing over at all and remaining in the clutches 00:25:38.220 |
There are many people who are in churches today who just sit and falsely worship sitting 00:25:46.660 |
And this is where a lot of confusion happens because one might believe these things, you 00:25:54.700 |
One might believe all these things but never understand what to do to cross over the line 00:26:01.540 |
God beckons, He calls, the question being then, not only what do we believe as believers, 00:26:10.700 |
And I think that's the burning question when we think about genuine conversion. 00:26:17.060 |
You've read the contract that God sets before you, this is the truth, and you have to sign 00:26:26.620 |
Many of you guys can attest to the point that you've heard the gospel before, maybe in youth 00:26:30.940 |
group or elementary school or things like that, and you were just sitting right on that 00:26:37.180 |
And your life began to change and you began to see fruit when you crossed over and said, 00:26:49.380 |
This is the difference, there is a difference between what God does and what we do, so this 00:26:56.180 |
isn't part of your worksheet but I want to make it clear that God is the one that does 00:26:59.460 |
the electing, calling, regenerating, converting, justifying, adopting, and reconciling. 00:27:13.460 |
This can become very complex but let's keep it very simple. 00:27:26.940 |
Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment 00:27:32.220 |
to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ. 00:27:37.180 |
It's a heartfelt, this is deep, cutting, where your heart is just diced up. 00:27:44.980 |
You feel like a sword stuck through your chest. 00:27:53.940 |
If you do not understand sin before a holy God, there will be no crying out for God. 00:28:01.860 |
There will be no need for you to step over that line other than fire insurance. 00:28:08.180 |
It's a heartfelt sorrow for sin and a renouncing of it, a sincere commitment, a commitment. 00:28:19.660 |
It's a commitment to forsake this and walk in this, to forsake this world and to obey 00:28:30.220 |
If you look at 2 Corinthians 7, verse 9-10, it says, "As it is, I rejoice not because 00:28:33.980 |
you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting." 00:28:39.340 |
You can grieve over your sin but there's a difference between that and grieving into 00:28:45.220 |
For you felt a godly grief so that you suffer no loss through us. 00:28:48.000 |
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation. 00:28:54.180 |
Without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 00:29:06.500 |
Your understanding that sin is wrong and that we reside before a holy God. 00:29:09.900 |
You're saying, I put these quotes because I felt like it encapsulates it in more layman's 00:29:19.900 |
I understand the offense of sin before a holy God. 00:29:32.300 |
I agree that this is an offense, that this is sin. 00:29:35.400 |
Which moves us into a third part which is confession. 00:29:47.540 |
You are, and that line there is, you are crushed by the reality of your sin and are drawn to 00:29:59.260 |
So that whole idea of confession you can see in Romans, a lot of places, but in Romans 00:30:02.620 |
chapter 10 verse 9 it says, "Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord 00:30:06.540 |
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." 00:30:15.060 |
So you've acknowledged it, you agree to it, you confess it, now you're asking for forgiveness. 00:30:25.260 |
You're coming before God and saying, "Will you forgive me?" 00:30:30.780 |
It's funny how we can know about our sin, but we can feel grieved over our sin, and 00:30:38.740 |
yet we never come before God and say, "Oh God, I'm really sorry. 00:30:51.180 |
You know, in asking for forgiveness, I want to make it clear that this is audible. 00:31:09.660 |
You're talking to him, you're saying, you're asking for forgiveness as you would in a relationship. 00:31:13.780 |
If you've ever had a friend who knows they did something wrong against you, but they 00:31:16.300 |
don't say anything, they just know, and you know, they don't say anything. 00:31:21.940 |
A friend like this could even have confessed, like, "Yeah, I did that." 00:31:25.780 |
But if they don't ask for forgiveness, there's always going to be this big elephant in the 00:31:28.580 |
room that your relationship doesn't heal, it doesn't fix, until they say, "I'm sorry. 00:31:36.380 |
You're going to see that even clearer when you get married. 00:31:41.340 |
Your wife is usually sleeping in the same bed. 00:31:48.980 |
When forgiveness is asked for is when the relationship can start being repaired. 00:31:52.100 |
And that brings us to the fifth part of repentance, is that you make a decision. 00:31:56.660 |
There must be a renouncing of sin, and a decision of the will to forsake it and lead a life 00:32:14.660 |
Notice that this 180 degree turn is a decision. 00:32:36.940 |
I saw the math majors right now go like this. 00:32:45.500 |
You acknowledge, you agree, you confess, then you ask for forgiveness. 00:32:48.140 |
It brings you to this point of decision making. 00:32:50.460 |
At this point, it should be clear that you don't want to live the way you used to live. 00:32:53.820 |
And this means that you make an active decision to change your mind, your emotions, and your 00:33:04.020 |
It's just everything about who you are, top to bottom. 00:33:12.100 |
And yes, that does mean your feelings change too.